The church you see today is little altered from the church that was
built here in 1780, to serve the spiritual needs of the planned model village
then being developed by Sir David Kinloch of Gilmerton. Cottages were strung
along the east-west line of the main street, each comprising two rooms and most
costing between £15 and £20 to build. The kirk was built on the
site of an earlier church, which may in turn have been just the most recent of
several previous churches on the site.

The first record of a church existing on this site was in 1176,
when Ada, the mother of William I, built what was
called the Ecclesia de Elstaneford here.

Athelstaneford Parish Kirk is cruciform in shape with a long nave
being balanced by a small semi-octagonal apse-like chancel. There are three
magnificent stained glass windows in the church made by C.E Kempe at the
beginning of the 1900s, while the beautiful window in the north transept,
showing Christ calling two fishermen to be his disciples, was made in 1958 by
Mary I. Wood of Edinburgh. Internally, the church has undergone a sympathetic
restoration that took eight years to complete. The result is a lovely space
with an inviting feel.

The kirk has a close connection with the author Nigel Tranter. He
was married here, and in April 2008 a permanent Nigel Tranter Exhibition was
established in the north transept of the church. Included in the items on
display are an example of the kind of typewriter he used, a number of
manuscripts and books, and some personal items. It is good that the exhibition
has found such a fitting permanent home after previously being housed at
Lennoxlove House, and
prior to that at Abbotsford,
the home of Sir Walter
Scott.

The kirk is intimately linked with the story of the founding of
Scotland's flag, the Saltire.
A doocot to the north west of the church dating back to 1583 is now home to the
Flag Heritage Centre, giving visitors
an audio visual presentation of the most popular version of the story of the
founding of the Saltire. In
the kirkyard to the south east of the kirk is a memorial to the founding of the
flag. Also in the kirkyard is a beautiful example of an immortelle: these were
complex china figures standing on the grave incorporating figures, foliage and
birds, covered by glass domes and protected by wire outer covers. Extremely
fragile, these date back to the Victorian era and very few now survive
intact.